1999 Wrap

Dogs Miss out on third straight NCAA bid

Georgia's bid for a third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament fell short on the last Sunday of the season as the Bulldogs were not selected as an at-large team after losing to Ole Miss in the SEC semifinals the Friday before and finishing the season with a 13-6-2 overall record.

The Bulldogs, who are 3-0 in first round SEC Tournament games, were coming off an emotional victory over a No. 14 Kentucky team that carried a 15-game winning streak into the game, the nations second longest. Georgia's victory came in the seventh round of sudden death penalty shots as the Bulldogs won the penalty kick round 5-4 to win 2-1.

Georgia's SEC record in second round games moved to 0-3 as the Bulldogs would drop a 1-0 decision to Ole Miss to get knocked out of the semifinal round. The Rebels jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute and despite a dominating second half performance, where Georgia outshot Ole Miss 16-2, the Bulldogs were still unable to net the equalizer.

One of the deciding factors to the Bulldogs not making the NCAA tournament seemed to be a drop off in SEC invitees as the conference received two bids this season as opposed to six the year before. Georgia ended the season at 13-6-2 and had a 5-4 SEC record. The Bulldogs advanced to the SEC Tournament for the third time in five seasons.

Young Guns

Despite the disappointment of not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament Georgia has a bright future. The Bulldogs only lose one player in senior Sheila Gartman, who was out the last nine games of the season with an ACL injury. Georgia's freshmen class that made such an impact this season will have one season under their belt as the Bulldogs return 10 field players who started at least 10 games this season along with Second-team All-SEC goalie Nicole Williams. Georgia will also have the benefit of multiple seniors on the roster as Williams, Kristy Bongiovanni and Stefanie Bertcher will all return for their senior seasons. Georgia's freshman class will be expected to continue to provide a good deal of the offense after registering 66 of the Bulldogs 121 points and 26 of the 46 goals this season.

Bulldogs set attendance marks

Georgia set attendance records throughout the course of the season drawing 21,015 fans in 14 games over the course of the home campaign for an average of 1,501 fans per game. Georgia drew seven of the eight largest crowds in the program's history drawing over 2,000 fans three times this season and over 1,000 fans for eight of the 14 home games.